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Basin ecosystems are vulnerable to natural resource depletion, ecological damage, and environmental pollution due to their fragile natural environment. Assessing the value of basin ecosystem services (ES) can facilitate informed decision making by policy makers and stakeholders in the context of competing resource use. The Konqi River Basin in China, an arid inland river basin, has suffered from degraded ecosystems due to overexploitation of soil and water resources. In response, the local government launched an ecological water conveyance (EWC) project in 2016 to enhance ecological restoration efforts. This paper analyzes and evaluates the value of ES in the Konqi River Basin based on land use and land cover (LULC) change characteristics before and after EWC in 2013 and 2020, respectively. Remote sensing data and related socioeconomic statistics data are used to assess a typical river basin from three unique locations in the Konqi River Basin, divided into upper and lower reaches. The results show that cropland and unused land are the most important land use types in the upper and lower reaches. The characteristics of ecosystem service value (ESV) changes in the study area are consistent with land use structure changes. The total ESV shows a decreasing trend in the upper reaches from 2013 to 2020, while the lower reaches show an increasing trend. The total ESV increases in the typical river reaches of the Konqi River Basin. Spatially, low-ESV areas are mainly located in ecologically fragile areas that are difficult to develop and use. The sensitivity indexes of the study area are all less than 1, making the results of this study credible. The Moran index shows a significant spatial correlation in the study area, indicating that the distribution characteristics of high-ESV areas are agglomerative. Hot spot areas in the upper reaches show an overall increasing trend, while in the lower reaches, former sub-hot spot areas transform into hot spot areas. Due to data limitations, this study is limited to demonstrating that the value of ES in the area changes due to a combination of EWC policies and other factors. Nevertheless, the analysis shows that EWC policies actively change the ESV of a typical river basin in Konqi. This study can provide a reference for evaluating ESV in inland river basins in the northwest arid region and a scientific basis for the rational development and utilization of water and soil resources in the study area, located in an arid and ecologically fragile area.

The Xinjiang Zhundong Economic and Technological Development Zone, which contains the largest coalfield in China, is a mega energy base for west–east gas transmission and outbound electricity transmission in China; however, resource exploitation and the region’s arid climate have led to the region’s ecological environment being increasingly vulnerable. The morphological spatial pattern analysis (MSPA) method and landscape connectivity were used in this study to identify the ecological sources and extract the ecological corridors and ecological nodes based on the minimum cumulative resistance (MCR) model, used to construct the landscape ecological security pattern in the Zhundong region from 2016 to 2021. The results show that (a) from 2016 to 2021, the area of ecological sources increased by 117.86 ha and the distribution density of which decreased from the southern-central region to the northern and northwestern regions. (b) From 2016 to 2021, the number of ecological corridors and ecological nodes decreased, and the ecological corridors with dense distributions in the south gradually moved to the north and west. The length of the ecological corridors in the south gradually became longer, and the number of ecological corridors connecting the east and west in the north increased. (c) The landscape ecological security pattern of the Zhundong region was constructed by “a network and multiple points” using the model of ecological sources–ecological corridors–ecological nodes. The findings of this study provide a scientific foundation for the construction of an ecological security development plan and the ecologically protective development of coal resources in Zhundong.

In typical semi-arid areas, the timely and effective monitoring and evaluation of soil heavy metal pollution are of critical importance to prevent soil deterioration and achieve the sustainable use of soil resources. To further understand the degree of soil heavy metal pollution in different functional areas, we studied the soil heavy metal pollution on the northern slope of the eastern Tianshan Mountains in Xinjiang. We collected 104 surface soil samples from typical commercial (A), industrial (B), and agricultural (C) areas with different land-use patterns. The contents of Zn, Cu, Cr, Pb, As, and Hg in the soil of different functional areas were evaluated using the geo-accumulation index, the single-factor pollution index, and potential ecological risk. The results showed that the contents of Pb, As, and Hg in soils of different functional areas exceeded 4.47, 8.03, and 1.5 times the background values of Xinjiang soil, respectively. The average contents of Zn, Cu, and Cr were lower than the background values of Xinjiang soil. Except for As in different functional areas, the contents of the other elements in the different functional areas reached the level of soil environmental quality standards in China (GB15618-2018). The geo-accumulation index of heavy metals in different functional areas was in the order of Area C > Area A > Area B, indicating that Area C was the most polluted. The results of the single-factor pollution index showed that the pollution levels of Pb, As, and Hg were higher, and the pollution levels of Cr, Cu, and Zn were lower. The results of the potential ecological risk index showed that the northwest of Area A was higher, the southeast of Area B was more polluted, and the central and eastern parts of Area C were more polluted. From the perspective of spatial distribution, the spatial distribution characteristics of Zn and Cr elements in different functional areas are consistent, but the spatial distribution characteristics of Cu, Pb, As, and Hg in different functional areas are quite different. The high values of these four elements are mainly distributed in residential areas, factories, and metal smelters. It is necessary to divide the functional areas based on different land-use patterns, and the prevention of soil single-element and heavy metal pollution in different functional areas is reasonable for land resources and provides a scientific basis for the effective planning of quality assurance.

In recent years, soil heavy metal pollution has become an important issue of general concern because it is an important factor that threatens the soil environment. To assess the risk of the human health of the people living in the economic belt on the northern slope of the eastern Tianshan Mountains, and provide guidance for pollution control and risk prevention, the northern slope of the eastern Tianshan Mountains was selected as the study area, and six heavy metals (i.e., Zn, Cu, Cr, Pb, and Hg) were measured. The results revealed that the Cu, Pb, Hg, and As contents of the soil exceeded the soil background value of Xinjiang by 1.02, 4.10, 1.76, and 7.98 times, respectively. The Zn and Cr contents were lower than the limits of regional soil standards. Based on the pollution assessment using the pollution index (PI), values indicate that the levels of Zn and Cr pollution were low, those of Cu and Hg pollution were moderate, and those of Pb and As pollution were high. The health risk assessment results revealed that there are non-carcinogenic risks to children. The carcinogenic health risks posed by the heavy metals in this region are higher than the threshold (10−4), indicating that they pose a hazard to human health. The results of this research provide a theoretical basis and reference for soil heavy metal pollution control and human health risk management in this area.